A sign that I know a restaurant is great is when being led to my table and the food from every table I pass looks and smells amazing.
A sign that I know a restaurant is great in Montreal is when the above happens and almost none of the guests are speaking English.
Both boxes are checked at Lemeac. Lemeac is in the upscale Outremont neighborhood behind Parc du Mont-Royal and is almost devoid of tourists. The French bistro style is full effect here and they have a large covered side patio that has about 15 tables. We sat outside on a warm summer evening and the whole place was buzzing with activity.
We had the steak frites and the roast duck. The steak was a perfectly prepared hanger steak, cooked medium. The roast duck was served sliced, which is usually a bad thing, but it was cooked to order (rare) and was very tender. It came served with 2 meat ravioli, shiitake mushrooms, bok choi, with a sweet & sour sauce. Sounds like a bit too much, but all this extra stuff was almost background noise, with the excellent duck at center stage.
The service here was excellent as well.